Mansfield Town

Defender determined to get one over on perennial bogey side.

Defender Martin Riley admits that a sense of revenge is in the offing when our team go head-to-head with Accrington Stanley at One Call Stadium tomorrow.

Under previous boss James Beattie, tomorrow’s opponents took a total of four points off us, home and away, in the dying seconds of our two meetings with them last term.

In December’s meeting in North Nottinghamshire, our team were left shell-shocked as Kal Naismith and James Gray struck deep into injury-time to complete a remarkable 3-2 comeback win for Accrington.

Stanley left it even later to snatch a point in the reverse fixture in April – and effectively end our play-off chances, as Naismith converted a spot-kick in the fifth minute of added time after Riley tangled with Gray.

Riley now believes it is important to get one over on our perennial bogey team.

“They took four points off us when we should have been taking all of them and scored three [injury-time] goals and we haven’t forgot that,” said Riley.

“The most important thing is that we beat them this time.”

He continued: “Every time we’ve lost a game this season, we’ve bounced back, which is a good thing, but at the moment we just need to start putting a little run together, which is something we’re not quite doing at the minute.”

Paul Cox’s team are the only one in the Football League yet to draw a match this season and Riley admits that although it’s surprising – given that we drew on 15 occasions last term – it could be a good thing.

He said: “It is quite unusual, especially for ourselves as we had quite a few draws last year. It is surprising, but I suppose for the points tally it’s a lot better.

“It’s never nice to lose games, but it’s better to win one, lose one, than to draw a couple.”

Reflecting on our first 10 league matches, the 27-year-old old added: “It’s been a solid start to the season, but if we can turn these defeats into draws, it’s going to be even better for us.

“We just need to look to put a run together at the moment, though the main aim is to obviously bounce back at home. We’re playing well at home, but looking further down the line, we need to start putting a run together.”